Steve Weiss Email & Phone Number

Help build industry leaders, as management/marketing consultants and executive advisors. Focus on high impact fields, like climatetech, with expertise spanning biotech, renewables, advanced materials, AI and cloud/SaaS software. We’ve helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars, contributed to multiple IPOs and mergers, and drove the turnaround of a public company. We act as ‘CEO co-pilots’, develop business plans, negotiate strategic partnerships, and build product and marketing strategy. We help our clients punch above their weight class, standing out from others to investors, partners and employees. Current/recent clients include Future Origins (Unilever/Kao/L'Oreal/Geno JV for palm alternatives), Geno (sustainable materials and chemicals, formerly known as Genomatica), Biosphere (biomanufacturing process technology), Sortera Technologies (metals sortation / upcycling, commercial), Synata Bio, Viridis Chemical, Oberon Fuels (decarbonizing propane, making renewable hydrogen), NovoNutrients (CO2 to protein) and an AI company. Additional examples from our 140+ clients include Serious Materials (early leader in green building materials), Extensity ($2B IPO), SupplyFrame (supply chain, $700M exit), Liquid Light (CO2 to chemicals, acquired by Avantium), Aspen Aerogels (IPO), Imprint Energy (ultrathin, flexible, printed batteries for IoT, acquired by CCL), and many others across cleantech, foodtech, water management and software.

San Diego, Ca, Us

Geno/Unilever/Kao/L'Oreal joint venture (palm alternatives). First advisor retained to help build new JV following appointment of CEO. Commercializing more sustainable, drop-in replacements for high-volume products traditionally made from palm oil. Focus on strategy, partnerships, fundraising.

Business model, partnering and fundraising strategy for biomanufacturing process technology firm.

San Diego, Ca, Us

Strategy advisor for leader in sustainable materials and chemicals, focused on long-term growth, financing strategy and major partnerships. Follows many years of leading marketing: helped raise $300M+, create outsize visibility and acclaim, build strong credibility in mainstream chemical industry, and evolve business model and marketing toward greater brand/consumer/mainstream focus and sustainability. Wrote large parts of S-1 and IPO roadshow; co-led development of core values.

Member of the Due Diligence Wolfpack – “hungry for value, destroyers of pettifoggery and hype”. We critique bioeconomy companies, technologies and trends at Jim Lane’s ABLC conferences twice per year, plus webinars. Topics include methanol, hydrogen, renewable chemicals and materials, fuels, alternative protein and more. Great fun for the wolves and the audience; valuable outside perspective for the companies we evaluate.

Advisor to Versational - AI-powered productivity solution that saves time and makes meetings and teams more productive. Includes distinctive speech technology (with emotion detection) and machine learning models; enables companies to build and leverage their own private large learning models. Extension of 30 year friendship and prior successful exits with the founder/CEO.

San Diego, California, Us

Revamped company focus and story, to highlight near-term path to decarbonize the giant propane industry and advance renewable hydrogen, building on their technical and commercial milestones. New messaging sizzled at 700 person conference, followed quickly by multiple awards, and big boost in visibility and credentials. Updated value proposition and partnership models are accelerating revenue and commercial ramp.

Sunnyvale, Ca, Us

Led marketing at #1 green/cleantech manufacturer of advanced building materials. Led company to unmatched visibility and awards starting two+ years before major product releases. Won top honors at Cleantech Forum, Popular Science's Green Product of the Year, first Aspen Institute award for energy conservation and more; featured in TIME, Fortune, BusinessWeek, TV news, etc. Repositioned company and expanded mission. Introduced EcoRock green drywall and SeriousWindows; doubled QuietRock-brand revenues. Built marketing function, team and processes from scratch. Personally responsible for major accounts and multi-million dollar BD relationships.

Chiba-Shi, Mihama-Ku, Jp

Interim exec role, leading marketing for all weather content and services for American subsidiary of largest public weather company ($100M per year, headquartered in Japan). Dotted line responsibility for product development. Developed business model for broadcast affiliate network for mobile (cellphone) video content; we distribute their content, they invest heavily in co-marketing to sign up subscribers. Signed 83 stations reaching 74 million households in three months, and boosted carrier partnerships. Developed LiveLocal branding. Added sponsorship revenue stream. Also drove new services for multimillion dollar B-B lines of business, including commercial and business aviation, and shipping. Personally led seven-figure partnership discussions. Brought new discipline to product planning. ‘Raised the bar’ on outbound marketing through improved collateral, sales demos, messaging, scripts and training. Tuned marketing programs across all our annuity revenue model verticals.

Los Altos, Ca, Us

Combination of in-house VC and interim CEO for new initiatives and businesses that we'd develop. Focused on technologies, networks and services that catalyze eBusiness adoption.Championed seed investment in SupplyFrame, and later raised Series A. Started early RFID efforts; also created ClaimsNet, for healthcare insurance claims processing. Took first steps in building partnership with Fortune 50 company, resulting in $3M initial proposal to them. Coordinated partnerships with VC firms as well as potential direct investments in startups. Simultaneously acted as interim VP marketing and recruited replacement.

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

Talked my way into offices and resources of IBM's 'internal grad school / advanced research lab', staffed by their top researchers, to simulate vision recognition / robotics algorithms I was developing for my Westinghouse (now Intel) Science Talent Search entry (awarded Honors). My work originally inspired by Popular Electronics 1975 articles on the MITS Altair 8800, a CCD camera, and a fan-fold MicroSoft BASIC manual with Bill Gates' name in it. Hired by the lab post-freshman year at MIT.

Masters Science, Computer Science

Ms, Bs, Computer Science